When Nothing Goes Right

 

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ou know how it is, don’t you.  You wake up in the morning and just when you think it’s going to be a good day, the bottom falls out!  There’s no hot water, the coffee pot goes on the blink, the car won’t start, and to beat it all, you notice that during the night the power went out so you have no idea what time it is.  The only thing you know is that you are running behind and you will play catch-up for the rest of the day! 

 

Sound familiar?  The truth is most of us, if not all of us, have had days like this.  Some of us have weeks like this and then there are those eternal pessimist who would say life is like this!  We’ll pray for them!!  But honestly, we all experience times when it just seems everything is against us and Murphy’s Law (If anything can go wrong it will!) is in full effect in our lives. 

 

At times like this, we usually assume we understand what Job felt like   when he lost his wealth, his family, and his health.  But our situation, no matter how frustrating, doesn’t even compare with Job or his situation.  But there are other people and places in the Scriptures where frustration with life and difficult circumstances are clearly depicted. 

 

One such individual is Jacob.  If you remember Jacob’s story, you will recall that he tricked his brother, Esau, out of his birthright, he worked for Laban 14 years for his wife Rachel, he had 12 children, of whom Joseph was the favorite, and he wound up in Egypt during the height of a great famine plaguing the entire region from Egypt to Canaan.  

 

However, the greatest challenge in Jacob’s life was believing a lie for 13 years. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery but told their father that a wild animal attacked and killed the boy.  After 13 years, the brothers went to Egypt to buy food during the famine.  They didn’t recognize their brother, Joseph, who was in charge of the land and who sent them back home to bring the youngest brother back.  Jacob had refused to let Benjamin go to Egypt for fear harm would come to him and when faced with the idea the boy would leave he made the following statement found in Genesis 42:36b, “Everything is against me!” 

 

When we consider that Jacob’s oldest son, Simeon, was being held in an Egyptian prison as a guarantee Benjamin would be sent to Joseph, that Jacob was still mourning the loss of Joseph, and that Benjamin would now be taken from his father, we can understand why Jacob would make such a statement.  Nothing in Jacob’s life seemed to be going right.  Everything, as he said, was against him. 

 

Yet, everything was working for Jacob, not against him.  God was at work putting this family back together.  For the 13 years he was in Egypt, God had blessed Joseph and used him to bless others.  The time in Potipher’s household, the false accusations of Potipher’s wife, and the time spent in prison, were all necessary so that Joseph could be put in charge of Egypt and help his family.  Neither Joseph nor Jacob knew how God was working but He was there in every situation, working out His plan. 

 

This should give us great encouragement today.  It may very well seem that everything is against us.  Finances are low, job situations are not what we wish they would be, there seems to be no forward progress in our spiritual development, and it seems God has forgotten us.  Remember, during the times when nothing goes right, our Heavenly Father is working and He is working to our good in every situation no matter how difficult, challenging, or frustrating.  How are things going with you today?